World briefs

Pyeongchang, South Korea, will host the 2018 Winter Olympics after beating Munich and Annecy, France. The town, in the Taebaek Mountains 130 kilometres east of Seoul, won in the first round of voting by International Olympic Committee members.Bloomberg

Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s state-owned investment company, said the value of its assets climbed 3.8 per cent to a record last fiscal year and profit more than doubled on increased contributions from its holdings.Bloomberg

UK manufacturing rose at the fastest pace since March 2010 in May as factories bounced back from the impact of an extra public holiday in April and the Japanese quake.Bloomberg

Industrial production in Germany rebounded in May, led by rising output of investment goods such as machines. Production rose 1.2 per cent from April, when it dropped a revised 0.8 per cent, the Economy Ministry said. Bloomberg

In a US presidency full of firsts, President
Barack Obama
notched up another: first sitting president to “tweet" live from the White House. Mr Obama strode to a laptop in the east room and tweeted: “In order to reduce the deficit, what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep? BO." AP

US presidential contender
Mitt Romney
has confirmed his front-runner status in the Republican primary race, raising more than $US18 million ($16.8 million) over the past three months, over four times as much as his closest rivals. AP

The case against
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
has been thrown into more disarray after an all-out war broke out between the district attorney’s office and the former IMF chief’s accuser. Lawyers for the maid who says Mr Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in a Manhattan hotel room have demanded a new prosecutor. AP